Startups as Innovation Consultants?

Startups as Innovation Consultants?

I ran across this article today about corporations partnering with startups to help them learn how to innovate. I find the idea intriguing – startups could help a corporate innovation team bust through the “we’ve always done it this way” barriers which would open the doors to new ways to do business. But I am skeptical – what startup has time to coach a corporate team of innovators? Startups know how they came up with their idea but do they have a method that they can apply to other innovations?

Has anyone partnered with startups to help develop their culture of innovation?

Generally, I share your skepticism. But I have seen exceptions. A powerful one is from Lumenlab, MetLife’s Asian innovation hub. A couple years ago Lumenlab started a contest called collab (collab.lumenlab.sg) where it seeks startups with novel solutions to MetLife-specific innovation challenges (e.g., fraud detection). Winning startups get a $100,000 contract with MetLife. This is NOT an accelerator program. Rather, collab seeks out established startups seeking the reference value of working with a global Fortune 50 company. MetLife leaders help to create the problem statements, and serve as “champions” that coach and mentor finalists. It is a powerful way for leaders to actively learn from startups (and vice versa of course). So, the right program done in the right way can be at least a tool in the capability building toolkit.

Awesome example, Scott – it reminds me of the reverse pitches I have seen from Census Bureau (at Design Thinking DC) and from Providence Healthcare (in Seattle, at Cambia Grove, a healthcare think tank). These organizations pitch problems they want to be solved to an audience of startup founders, often people with technology looking for a problem to be solved. The startups pitch solutions and the winner gets money plus the experience working with the larger company.

I guess I haven’t seen how these engagements lead to a culture of innovation. If the Fortune 50 company were intentional about using what they learned not just about how to solve the problem they pitched, but also developing the structure for innovative problem solving in their company, I could see this working really well. It is a symbiotic relationship that benefits both the big company and the startup.

Kristann, immersions are a powerful way to connect start-ups and corporations. The Immersion Lab is a company that designs “out of the classroom” learning experiences for leaders from corporations, typically from a leadership development program. These immersions include meetings with start-ups, disruptors, venture capitalists and leaders from different industries. Both sides learn from each other and find the unstructured discussion to be a valuable use of their time. Combine immersions with reflection to bring the learning back to the context of the business. The insights I’ve heard that are the most impactful relate to how the start-ups behave.

I recently participated in an immersion with a software engineer at a start-up and a group of 15 leaders from different businesses and geographies at a large corporation. Some of the insights and reflections shared were:

– Build for your customers, not your team
– Set deadlines
– Be curious and fast
– Trust that you can ask people for advice – most people are willing to help
– If you’re not ashamed of your Minimum Viable Product you’ve over designed it
– Hire for need; it’s best to have a small team with passion and commitment
– Listen and learn from everyone

Thanks, Natalie for your insights. The article I read was about startups as innovation coaches. Your list of reflections is what I often see when a team walks out of an intensive training on Lean Startup or Design Thinking. But an innovation coach ensures the team applies what they learn in this program to their own work.
In my spare time (ha!), I am coach for an innovation accelerator program for US government employees. Their bootcamp was this week and I met with the teams I will coach yesterday. When I asked the lead of one team what they hoped to achieve over the next 3 months, the answer was basically to validate the solution they had already developed. This isn’t innovation, yet he had some of the same insights you list from attending the bootcamp.
Now this partially stems from the application process that is biased towards teams who have already identified solutions instead of selecting teams with a problem to solve. But I believe that it is the coach that gets teams innovating because it takes a long, concerted effort to move someone away from a solution to problem discovery – its the way we are wired, its how we were taught to work in school and in the professional world.
Has anyone else seen this in action? I do think that Scott’s example of collaboration is a good one. Any other great examples of collaboration with startups to help teams learn how to innovate?